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“I’m afraid because I don’t want to go to jail for fraud,” he said. “I don’t think I defrauded anyone, and I don’t want to go to prison.”
Technically speaking, he had attempted to defraud the court by filing a false malpractice claim to try to recover money to pay a debt, but Faith wasn’t here to pursue a fraud case. His attempt had failed, and Dr. Ames was no longer around to suffer from the effects of a malpractice case.
But she couldn’t take his word for it that he hadn’t killed anyone. He had motive and know-how. He needed an alibi or they would at least have to bring him in for questioning.
“Wait!” Hunt said, eyes flying open. “Gertie saw me! My neighbor! She sits on her porch sometimes at night. Two nights ago, she was out smoking a cigar on her porch, and I came out to talk to her a moment. She lives in the house to the left. Talk to her. She can confirm I was home after eleven at night!”
Faith looked at Michael, who stood and said, “Will Gertie be home right now?”
“Should be,” Hunt replied. “She doesn’t go out anymore. She’s old now, eighty or thereabouts. She’ll tell you I was here two nights ago.”
“I’ll be right back, in that case,” Michael said. “Special Agent Bold and K9 Unit Turk will hang tight with you.”
He left and Hunt turned to Faith. “You think I’m an asshole, don’t you?”
“We’ll see,” Faith said.
He chuckled bitterly. “I’m not your guy, Special Agent. If I was, I would never have done that shit with the bell and the recording device.”
Faith leaned forward. “I never mentioned anything about a bell or a recording device.”
“It’s all over the news,” he said. “That last murder, the lawyer, some residents saw the cops pull out a bell and a tape recorder. You can call the news stations if you don’t believe me.”
Faith swore silently. Of course the media would show up and throw a wrench into an investigation. Never mind that this could spook their killer and send him into hiding. Never mind that if he did kill again, he might change his MO and make it more difficult for them to find him. No, as long as it pulled viewers to their channel, who cares?
“I would just bury them,” he said, “and not in a cemetery. For Christ’s sake, it’s only a matter of time before he gets caught. Either a night watchman will find him or a passerby will see him, or he’ll get caught on camera, or you guys will find evidence. It’s too risky. If I were him, I would bury them somewhere far out on public land, and I would spend more time covering the grave to make sure it’s not visible.”
“You’ve put a lot of thought into this,” Faith said.
“Oh yeah,” he agreed, nodding. “I’ve thought about killing them all the time. Not the guys who are actually dead, but the insurance guys? Yeah, I’ve thought about it. Haven’t you ever thought about it? You’ve never been hurt by someone badly enough that you wanted to see them dead by your own hands?”
Faith thought of Trammell, laughing as she screamed under his knife. She thought of the Copycat Killer, out there somewhere torturing others the way she was tortured. She didn’t come out and agree with him, but privately, she understood. She definitely understood.
“I didn’t do it, though,” he said. “I’m already in bad shape. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in prison.”
“But you said you have a plan to get away with it,” Faith reminded him.
“Well,” he said, “everyone has a plan. You guys catch ’em anyway.”
Faith had to admit he had a point.
Michael returned then. Faith met his eyes and knew right away that Hunt had his alibi. Michael held out his hand and Hunt took it. “Mr. Hunt, thank you for your time. I apologize for the mistake.”
“Gertie cleared me, did she?”
“She did,” Michael admitted, “and your next-door neighbor on the right, Tommy, has a picture of you clipping his lawn ornament with your golf cart on the fourth after midnight.”
Hunt laughed, his fear gone now that the danger of incarceration was past. “Yeah, I was a little drunk that night.” His smile faded. “So you’re not coming after me for the insurance?”
“It wasn’t insurance fraud,” Michael said. “You did try to defraud the court, but that’s outside of our wheelhouse. I would count your blessings that you lost and live quietly from now on.”
Hunt chuckled. “Well, I’ll live. I can’t promise any more than that.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Faith walked a circuit around the parking lot of their hotel. There were a few hours of daylight left, but the case was at a dead end. They had no leads. The suspects they had who had a solid connection to the victims had alibis or were otherwise incapable of committing these murders. Looking through the rest of Hucksley’s files had yielded no other possibilities.
So, they decided to return to the hotel and regroup. Neither had slept the night before, and Michael was making up for that at the moment.
